This study investigated the effects of two levels of intensity (one lesson per day or two lessons per day) of a spelling intervention on students at risk for school failure. A quasi-experimental group design with random assignment was used. Elementary-level participants (n = 39) enrolled in a 4-week summer remedial program progressed through the…

Sight-word instruction can improve functioning with various daily, recreational, and work-related tasks among children with moderate to severe disabilities. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of drill methods to teach sight words if the model contains at least 50% known items, which would also increase the number of opportunities…

The aim of this research study was to compare two strategies of sight word instruction in children attending a school for learners with moderate to severe mental disability, namely modified orthography (MO) and modified orthography where an association was made between the modification and the traditional orthography (MO/TO) together with a…

Evaluates the effectiveness of two different intertrial intervals for increasing the sight word vocabulary of four learning disabled students. Results indicate that, when measuring learning as a function of instructional time, immediate presentation resulted in a faster learning rate than did the five-second condition for three of the…

Learning to read a relatively irregular orthography, such as English, is harder and takes longer than learning to read a relatively regular orthography, such as German. At the end of grade 1, the difference in reading performance on a simple set of words and nonwords is quite dramatic. Whereas children using regular orthographies are already close…

The major theory examined in this paper is that the increasing problem of illiteracy in the United States may be due to a faulty method of teaching reading. The causes of the illiteracy problem and possible solutions are explored using evidence from reading research and classroom results. The following topics concerning the teaching of reading are…

Three moderately mentally retarded students, aged 8-11, were taught to read words commonly found on community signs. Error percentages were similar for both progressive time-delay procedures and constant time-delay procedures, but the constant time-delay procedure was slightly more efficient in direct instructional time and number of sessions to…

Transcriptions of a teacher using the "look and say" method of teaching reading to her beginners grade are analyzed. Methodological problems are identified and related to the children's view of the reading process and to their views of themselves as learners. The language experience approach is also discussed. (Author/KC)

Four moderately mentally retarded students, aged 8-13, were taught to read food words found in grocery stores, using constant time delay or system of least prompts procedures. Both strategies produced criterion-level performance in training and other settings, but the constant time delay procedure was more efficient. (Author/JDD)